torsdag 24. september 2015

China dissident's wife rejects invite to State Department

Relatives of Chinese dissidents met Wednesday with Secretary of State John Kerry as the Obama administration sought to demonstrate it won't gloss over human rights during this week's state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping.But the message was in danger of backfiring after the wife of one prominent dissident — Gao Zhisheng, who says he was tortured with an electric baton when he was held in detention and endured years of solitary confinement — refused the invitation. "They haven't talked to us in five years, for all the time we've been here, so why should we attend a meeting now?" Geng He told from her home in Cupertino, Calif. Gao himself vows to never leave China despite the hardships and having to live apart from his family. Read more